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Earth-9997
__TOC__ As an answer to DC Comics Elseworlds tale Kingdom Come which featured the competition's heroes some 30 years in the future, Alex Ross (the artist of Kingdom) and Jim Krueger teamed up and did the Marvel equivalent. The difference being while Kingdom Come was a 3 book series, Earth X was a three part trilogy that spanned 3 years (from late 1999-early 2004) totalling to 54 issues. It is by far one of the most extensive & continuity heavy Marvel tales ever, covering material from Marvel's humble beginning to its most recent storylines. =Titles= *Earth X *Universe X *Universe X - 4 *Universe X - Spidey *Universe X - Cap *Universe X - Beasts *Universe X - Iron Men *The Heralds - Prelude to Paradise X *Paradise X *Paradise X - Xen *Paradise X - Devils *Paradise X - Ragnarok *Paradise X - A =Time Frame= In this reality, it is 30 years in the future of the Marvel Universe (the exact year close to the end of Paradise X is 2004), and the planet Earth has gone through a lot of changes. Through the course of the series they cover the nature of mutations, the roles of cosmic beings in the Marvel Universe, the secrets of parallel universes and alternate timelines, and help Mar-Vell create a new paradise, to protect them all from those powerful beings that seek to manipulate them. =Earth X= (Earth X #0-12 & #X) The entire world has mutated due to the release of Terrigen Mists into the air. Uatu, the now blind Watcher, recruits Aaron Stack to be his eyes and inform him of what is happening on Earth. X-51 finds that in this new world where everyone has super human abilities, a young man named the Skull is attempting to take over the world, and Captain America and a band of other former champions of Earth have rallied together to stop him. But there is more going on here than meets the eye; it is learned that the Celestials have manipulated the people of Earth into being anti-bodies for a Celestial Embryo that is growing at the Earth's core. With humanity in a state of mutation that is not destined to happen for another 300 years, the Celestials come to cleanse the human race from the face of the Earth. Only the intervention of Reed Richards, Black Bolt, and Galactus (who is now Franklin Richards) stops the Celestials & destroys the Celestial growing at the center of the Earth. At the end of the battle, Galactus returns to space, and Reed has giant "Human Torches" built around the Earth to burn the Terrigen Mists out of the air in an attempt to return Humanity back to their former state. But this is not the end of the battle, as Captain Marvel has come to Reed Richards in a dream telling him that he will return and there is much more work to be done. =Universe X= (Universe X #0-12 #X, & Universe X Specials: 4, Spidey, Beasts & Iron Men) 3 Years later, Captain Marvel is reborn through Him & Her, while he also mounts an army in the Realm of the Dead to over throw Death. While in the land of the Living Mar-Vell travels across the world with Captain America seeking the fragmented portions of the Cosmic Consciousness & other items of great power. During their quest, Immortus & the illusive Mr. Church (who is really Mephisto) are the opposition to Richard's plan to burn the Terrigen Mists out of the air, and have started a religious following who believe that mutantity was destined for the stars. To make matters worse, the destruction of the Celestial embryo in the Earth has shifted the Earth's mass due to the loss of Vibranium in it's core, and the world is on the brink of destruction as it's pole slowly change. In the end, Mar-Vell collects enough power to destroy Death, & defeat Mephisto and begin building his own Paradise. On Earth, Mar-Vell assists the heroes into convincing the newly revived Absorbing Man into becoming Vibranium and saving the Earth. =Paradise X= (The Heralds #1-3, Paradise X 0-12 & Paradise X Specials: Xen, Devils, Ragnarok, & A) With Death dead, nobody on Earth is dieing, and Mephisto has returned only to increase those living in eternal agony. Earth's heroes must team up one more time to find a new Death. While in the Realm of the Dead, a number of heroes are turned into the Avenging Host to assist Mar-Vell in bringing new souls to Paradise. However, the result of each new being is threatening to destroy the Negative Zone. With a new Death, the heroes go to Mar-Vell's paradise to stop him from destroying the known universe as his paradise grows. What first appears to be the final salvo in the Kree invasion of the universe, turns out that Paradise was a way to create a barrier that would stop the Celestials and the Elders of the Universe from using the people of the universe as their pawns. Mar-Vell gives the power of the cosmic consciousness to Reed Richards, believing he is the only man who would be able to use it constructively. =The Old Universe= It is said that in the universe that existed before what became the Marvel universe, was one of pure cosmic awareness. This perfect universe however was threatened by the alien race that eventually became known as the Celestials. These creatures modified themselves to the point where they had almost lost all self identity, and constructed gigantic bodies of armor out of a metal that is known as Vibranium on Earth. Their only means of reproducing was to "impregnate" a fertile planet with a portion of their energy. This energy in turn would feed off the planets energies and soon become a Celestial themselves. The planets core is also infused with Vibranium that would then become the newborn Celestial's armor. The indigenous life forms of the planet would then be manipulated so that over time they would mutate and gain extraordinary powers so that they could act as unwitting anti-bodies to the young Celestial growing inside their homeworld. With nothing to keep the Celestials in check, the universe soon went into disorder, causing it to begin to break down. On the planet named Taa (also manipulated by the Celestials) a young being named Galen was empowered by the powerful Enigma force which turned him into Galactus (the Enigma force coming from Galactus' self in the far future where he has been turned into a star by Reed Richards) who then became the great balancer. Because the Watchers (specifically Uatu's father) allowed this to happen, the Celestials used the Watcher's code of "non-involvement" to make them their slaves. Eventually, the old universe was destroyed, and in the big bang, all it's knowledge was broken into pieces and scattered across existence, into a powersource which eventually became known as the Cosmic Consciousness. The few survivors from the old universe (The Watcher, The Collector, The Grandmaster, Death, The In-Betweener, & Phoenix to name a few) survived it's destruction, and began planning to recollect the splintered fragments of their old universe and restore it to it's former glory. While they planned this, The Celestials & Galactus went ever on, checking and balancing each other for Eons. = The Nature of Mutation = According to the Earth X trilogy, the Celestial manipulation of living creatures gives them special abilities. In their manipulations, to simplify the nature of the mutation, occurs in three tiers. These tiers occur gradually over time, and can be set off by any number of things. Tier #1: Individual mutation. Whatever sets off the dormant Celestial seed in the individual causes a mutation that is unique to the being it's occurring to in relation to what set off the mutable seed. For example, in the mainstream Marvel Universe, all of Earth's super-beings are in their first tier of mutation. On Earth any number of things can set this off. Radiated spiders, gamma bombs & even puberty. Tier #2: Is a level in which the collective beings of a planet have one specific ability. For example, the Skrulls are in their second tier, as they all bear the same resemblance and have the same abilities. Tier #3: Is a failsafe for the Celestials, should the beings they manipulated try to overthrow their masters. The third tier is a loss of identity, in this state the manipulated beings lose all individual characteristic and are very difficult to see. However, these beings can be shaped into whatever it is believed of anything they encounter. According to Earth X, The Asgardians, The Olympians, and even Mephisto are beings who were in their third tier of mutation who's very existence is shaped by mankind's belief that they what they are. Throw Backs: There are a number of members of the human race, that while in their first tier of mutation have abilities and appearances that are akin to man before they were manipulated by the Celestials. These are beings like Sasquatch, Wendigo, Man-Wolf and other mutations in which the being becomes almost lycanthropic in nature. Note: Although there are three levels of mutation listed above, it has been said that there really is none, that each level is really a learning curve to one essentially great power in each manipulated being. This power is run by ones belief, and works almost at a subconscious level, and the belief in these abilities starts with the individual but then grows into the collective belief of an entire race of people. So, on a certain level, Peter Parker got his spider-powers because that's what he believed he'd get from a radioactive spider-bite, that the Things mutation was the cause of his self loathing. Bruce Banners from his pent up rage. etc. = The Missing Link = In the Earth X story, there is a missing link, a splinter group of humanity that managed to escape the Celestial's mutations. There are two clans that are mentioned, The Moon Tribe (who worshiped the moon) & the Bear Tribe (who worshiped the bear) these missing links of humanity became hunted and killed by the genetically manipulated humanity. However, packs of them managed to survive. Wolverine, who for years though he was a mutant, is a descendant from this tribe, and is actually a true human being. The natural evolution of a human in the Earth X universe is to adapt to their environment, and eventually evolve to defend themselves. At least the Moon tribe eventually developed a healing factor (to cope with the diseases that Celestial manipulated man brought with them) and claws out of bone for defence. = Mephisto and the Nature of Time Manipulation = In Earth X, it is revealed that Mephisto was the product of the Celestials first manipulations of people on Earth. These early creatures were very susceptible to the third tier of mutation, and eventual became the demons that Price Wayfinder & his crew battled when they arrived in pre-historic Earth. The being that became Mephisto was though to be the devil and that's what he became. Believing that there would be a final judgement when time came to an end, Mephisto decided to come up with a plan that wouldn't spoil his fun. He soon learned that time travel was possible, however, if you didn't travel across the right path it would create an alternate reality, where anything you may do would happen outside of the universe that you left. Mephisto used the idea of time travel as a way to tempt people into creating these alternate realities. With these alternate realities created, Mephisto would have a new playground, and new people to manipulate and most importantly, he'd be able to escape the final judgement he believed was waiting for him at the end of time. Thanks to Mephisto's manipulations, the elders of the universe had an even more difficult time collecting the fragments of their own universe. =Death= Death was given the job of manning the collecting pool of reality. With the advent of alternate realities somebody had to take these fragments and put them together. And thus death was born. The realm of the dead is nothing more than an echo of memories past, because it is a collection of the fragments of dead alternate realities. These dead fragments echo the life it still feels from it's alternate counterparts. When Captain Marvel slew death, little did he realize how badly he upset the nature of the universe, because nobody would die. = Characters = A lot of the characters feature in the Earth X trilogy have been pre-established in the mainstream Marvel universe here is a list of characters who appeared in Earth X and their involvement in the trilogy. 'X-51/Watchman:' Aaron Stack used to be the Machine Man. He is kidnapped by Uatu the Watcher and stripped of his humanity. He is forced to watch the events happening on Earth. After Uatu's defeat at the end of Earth X, X-51 decides to remain on the moon and act as Earth's "Watchman" and work with the people of Earth instead of against them like Uatu did. Later, X-51 recruits a group of heroes from alternate realities to go to other parallel worlds to warn them of the danger of the Celestials growing in their own worlds. 'Uatu:' Is the old Watcher of Earth. He was blinded by Black Bolt -- king of the Inhumans -- who wished his involvement in the mutation of the entire people of Earth not be watched. Uatu then recruited Aaron Stack to be his eyes. Uatu then tried to strip the robot of all his programmed humanity before revealing the true nature of the Celestials to Aaron. X-51 tricked him and turned against Uatu. When X-51 was attempting to warn parallel Earths of the Celestial embryos, Uatu's people came to Earth to execute him for letting things go so far. X-51 used the former Watchers' technology to transport all the Watchers to various worlds, making them the all just as guilty of the crime for which they were going to execute Uatu. In the end, after Death was killed by Captain Marvel in the Realm of the Dead, Uatu began to deteriorate. However, the old Watcher could not die because there was no more death. It was not until the resurrection of Jude, the Entropic Man, that Uatu was given the gift of death. 'The Inhumans:' The Inhuman race wanted to leave the confines of Attilan following the final battle between Black Bolt and his insane brother Maximus. Black Bolt, not wanting his people to die from the industrial pollutants of the outside world or to be persecuted for being Mutants, released the Terrigen Mists into the air, mutating everyone on Earth. The Inhuman race then easily blended in with humanity, and the mists made the air outside Attilan safe for the Inhumans to breath. The Inhuman royal family left Earth and continued to mutate. They returned to Earth when they found the remains of a planet and the Eternals who were trapped in Vibranium floating in space. They also returned to find Black Bolt & Medusa's son so that he may wed Luna. 'Black Bolt:' Reed Richards believed Black Bolt knew everything about the Celestial's manipulation. It is quite possible that he did, and his inability to talk to anyone only made him bide his time. By the time of Earth X, Black Bolt has mutated to the point where he is hardly human. Dr. Doom's old Doombots do not even detect him. Later during the final battle on Earth at the end of Earth X, Black Bolt used his powers to hold off the Celestials and call Franklin Richards for help. Black Bolt died, but he succeeded in his mission. In Universe X, we find Black Bolt in the Realm of the Dead, where he joins with Captain Marvel's army against Death at a very crucial point in their battle. Later, when Mar-Vell is establishing his Paradise, Black Bolt is transmogrified into an angel, to serve Mar-Vell by convincing people in the Realm of the Dead to live in Paradise. In the end, Black Bolt and the rest of Mar-Vell's angels revolt against their master and are severely punished for it. However, after Mar-Vell's defeat, Black Bolt is restored to his former state. 'Medusa:' After the events of Earth X, Medusa spends most of her time with Luna in Britain. She eventually marries Captain Britain. However, due to the manipulations of Mephisto, Medusa eventually joins The Reject, her son Black Bolt (II), Captain Britain & X-51 in the final battle against Mephisto & the Deviants. 'Karnak:' Advises Reed Richards on the Inhuman's doings during the course of the 30 years preceding Earth X. He plays a small role in the rest of the series. He is against the marriage of Medusa and Captain Britain, and so he returns to Attilan to live in solitude. This is broken by the arrival of the Guardians of the Galaxy who want answers to why the past is more different then they remember, Karnak tells them more than they want to know. 'Triton:' Triton is present throughout the series, he is even more amphibious than ever before. 'Gorgon:' Also is present during the series, he has become more animal like and seems to be less intelligent. 'Luna:' Once she returned to Earth with the rest of the Inhuman royal family, Luna began to mutate from the Terrigen Mists in the air. Her mutation eventually turned her into a translucent butterfly. Expecting to be wed to Black Bolt & Medusa's son, she is rejected by the would-be prince of all humanity, who would rather serve his people than marry. By Paradise X, Luna seems to be involved with Jack of Hearts. 'Lockjaw:' Was killed by Maximus before the Inhumans left Earth, however his tuning fork was kept by the Inhumans & still maintains the ability to teleport them wherever they wish. 'Captain America:' Over the years mankind began to mutate, Captain America began to doubt if he had any positive impact in peoples lives. After finally killing the Red Skull, Cap vowed never to kill again, and shortly after left the Avengers. Not long after this, the Avengers were killed by the Absorbing Man. Cap eventually ended up working with S.H.I.E.L.D. during the early days of the worldwide mutation. Eventually, S.H.I.E.L.D. was defeated by Hydra, but not the terrorist organization. Rather by a new strange biological creature. After the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Norman Osborne taking over as President, Cap decided to stick around to watch things. He ended up joining Vision and Redwing with the Iron Avengers, and protected New York from the Hydra. Almost giving up life and joining the Hydra, he finds evidence that the Red Skull may still, in fact, be alive. Cap and Redwing travel to L.A. to find evidence of this and find a teenager calling himself the Skull making people his slaves. The Skull takes possession of Redwing, but leaves Cap, calling him nothing more than a joke. Cap eventually manages to get a small army to face the Skull when he reaches New York. During the final confrontation, Cap is forced to kill the Skull. He later buries him. Three years later, Captain America is charged with aiding the reborn Mar-Vell in locating items of power all over Earth to build Paradise. During their travels they are stalked by Death. While trying to secure the Dimensional Doorway from the victims of the Mad Bomb, Cap is killed in a hail of gunfire saving Mar-Vell. In the Realm of the Dead, Cap leads the army of the dead in the final conflict against Death. Afterward, he is transmogrified into an angel in Mar-Vell's Paradise. Cap is charged with convincing his own parents & Frank Castle to come to Paradise. Every time he goes to the Realm of the Dead, he feels that perhaps Mar-Vell's plan is not as good as he thought it was, and he plans a revolt with his fellow Avenging Host. They are killed by Mar-Vell, but after his defeat Mar-Vell restores them. Cap returns to the Realm of the Dead to be with his family, and Hawkeye takes his place in the Avenging Host. 'Redwing (Wyatt Wingfoot):' When the mutations hit, Wyatt is given a pair of wings that enable him to fly. He joins up with Vision & Cap along with the Iron Avengers. Later when he travels with Cap to L.A. he becomes a slave of the Skull. He is freed when Cap kills the Skull. Later, when Cap is killed in battle, Redwing calls Mar-Vell's quest insane and abandons his friends. He is later asked by Reed Richards to check on the Baxter Building where he finds himself in a confrontation with the Law, X-51's Heralds, The Guardians of the Galaxy as well as Annihilus & Blaastar. Wyatt joins this group in going back to the Negative Zone, where he stands watch as Reed Richards goes to confront Mar-Vell in Paradise. ''Vision: When the rest of the Avengers were killed by the Absorbing Man, Vision used his powers to infect Creel with a virus. Creel, turning into stone and deleting mass to avoid being killed by the infection, was then smashed to pieces by the android. Different people were given the pieces of Creel. Vision then joined up with the Iron Avengers, even though he didn't like the idea of them being Norman Osborne's police force. After the defeat of the Celestials, Vision went to Britain for a short time to assist Captain Britain into building an entire army of the Iron Avengers. He soon returned to New York City, which was being ravaged by The Absorbing Man. Vision used his phasing powers to make Creel intangible and was about to leave him like that when Loki convinced him to free Creel, who could then become Vibranium and save the world. ''The Iron Avengers: Hawkeye, Giant Man, Wasp, Quicksilver, & The Scarlet Witch were all killed by the Absorbing Man. In a world without the Avengers, Tony Stark created the Iron Avengers: robots that bore a striking resemblance to the dead heroes, and had copies of their personalities. They became Norman Osborne's police force. Later, when the Skull attacked New York City the Iron Avengers were destroyed. Later, after the Skulls defeat, Black Knight, Captain Britain, & The Vision built an army of Iron Avengers to protect the world. These creations did not have the personalities of the dead Avengers, though. Mostly protecting Buckingham Palace, the Iron Avengers were used by Black Bolt II to reignite the Human Torch in Antarctica that had gone out, and got involved with the battle between Toad & Magneto. Later, Iron Maiden took an army of Iron Avengers with her into space to find the Eternal Sersi, so she could fulfil her promise to Cable. 'The Hydra:' The Hydra are octopoid creatures that latch onto a host body. The person dies, and the creature takes control of the persons body and retains their memories. These creatures were created by Norman Osborne with material he found in the Bloodstone Files. It was an attempt to take down S.H.I.E.L.D. and it worked almost too well. A lot of Captain America's old friends were part of Hydra, including She-Hulk, Sharon Carter, Falcon, Dum-Dum Dugan, & Rick Jones. Although the Hydra were very difficult to kill, they were eventually sent to Limbo by Captain America with the help of the blaster given to him by ROM The Spaceknight. 'Daredevil:' The man known as Daredevil in the Earth X universe is not Matt Murdock, but a stunt performer with a most interesting mutant ability: He can't die. During the course of Earth X, he teams up with Captain America and his army in the hopes that Cap's rebellion against the Skull will surely get him killed, but things don't work out that way. Later, Daredevil tries to get back into show business, but mutantkind's interest in the religion created by Immortus (and further manipulated by Mephisto) kills the ticket sales. When Daredevil refuses to help Mephisto take down the Human Torch in New York City, Mephisto commands his mob to rip Daredevil to shreds. Instead of killing him, this causes him to replicate into an entire army of Daredevils, who disperse the mob. After another failed attempt at getting back into showbiz, the Daredevils travel with Reed Richards & his group to resurrect Jude, the Entropic Man, the being they choose as the new Death. Daredevil's doubles are used to test the Jude's entropic effects that Reed tries to synthesize. This Daredevil's true identity was never revealed. 'The Skull:' Ben Beckley, was the son of Stephen Beckley (aka Comet Man). When everyone on Earth was given super-powers due to the Terrigen Mists triggering the implanted Celestial seeds in humanity, Ben developed the ability to take physical control of anybody he wanted. This event also killed almost every telepath on Earth. Ben, infatuated with the symbolism of both the Punisher & The Red Skull began calling himself the Skull and began to take over the world. He was eventually stopped by Captain America and his army. During the battle, Cap, disguised as one of Alicia Masters clay Marvels, broke the boys neck to stop the war. During the events of Paradise X, Cap travels to the Realm of the Dead and considers using the boy to convince everyone in the Realm that they are truly dead. Even against the wishes of Comet Man & Thanos, Cap reawakens the boys memories, who tries to kill them. But through the intervention his father and 3-D Man, they convince the boy that what he had done in his life was wrong. Ben later joined Cap, Comet Man, Thanos and 3-D Man to stop Mar-Vell in his Paradise. 'John Jameson (Man-Wolf):' Was stationed on the moon with his wife and child. Still cursed with turning into the Man-Wolf, he took particular interest in goings on at the Watchers citadel. He soon found himself involved in the power struggle between X-51 and the blind Watcher. Uatu convinced Jameson to help him and gave him the Ultimate Nullifier to stop X-51 should he try to use the knowledge that Uatu gave him to stop the Celestial plan. Jameson was stopped, but turned into the Man-Wolf, forcing X-51 to transport him to Earth. After the battle against the Celestials, Reed Richards built a device that collected solar energy that would keep Jameson in human form at night. Jameson aided the worlds heroes in building the Human Torches to burn the Terrigen Mists out of Earths atmosphere. 'Mr. S (Scott Summer):' Following the disbanding of the X-Men, Scott Summers began living a reclusive life, but was eventually recruited by Captain America to teach a new team of X-Men to fight the Skull. When the Earth's impending destruction as at hand, Scott refused to leave Earth with his family, insisting on looking for Jean Grey. After the battle against the Skull, Scott continued to lead his new X-Men, and aided Mar-Vell in his quest to collect items of power. After a visit to Wakanda to collect the Cosmic Cube, Mr. S & The X-Men aided Black Panther in moving the people of Wakanda & the Ani-Men to the Savage Land to escape continued attacks by an army of Wendigo's. After the battle the X-Men remained in the Savage Land to assist Black Panther in building a new kingdom. After the defeat of Death, Mr. S worked in the many hospitals of the mortally wounded and acted as a informer to Phoenix, who became one of Mar-Vell's Avenging Host. 'President Osborne (Norman Osborne/The Green Goblin):' When Washington D.C. was destroyed by the Absorbing Man, Osborne took it as a chance to take over America and become it's next President. Thanks to the Terrigen Mists, he mutated to actually resemble the goblin he once portrayed as a criminal. With his vast fortune he tore down all of America's foundations and made everyone slaves to Oscorp, working for the basic necessities of life. He was later killed by the Skull (pushed out of a window, he was caught in a flag and his neck snapped) when he arrived to take over New York City. In the Realm of the Dead, Osborne assisted in battling Death, and was eventually granted a place in Paradise. 'Nick Fury:' Was killed in an attack made by Hydra. Fury's only legacy in the world of Earth X is his Life Model Decoys who roam the world trying to fulfil long over missions. Czar Colossus has destroyed many. In the Realm of the Dead, Fury and his Howling Commando's assisted Mar-Vell in his quest to defeat Death. 'The Human Torch (original):' Eventually shut down when his power source could no longer sustain him. 'Sharon Carter:' Deceased. Her body is used by the Hydra. 'She-Hulk:' Became "Madame Hydra" of the new Hydra, or rather her body was. In the Realm of the Dead she assisted Mar-Vell in defeating Death. 'Falcon:' Deceased. His body is used by Hydra. In the Realm of the Dead he assisted Mar-Vell defeat Death. 'The Black Panther:' Mutated further to resemble a humanoid panther. After the death of the Red Skull, Captain America entrusted him with protecting the Cosmic Cube and made him swear to never let it be used by anyone. Black Panther returned to Wakanda, and lived there with his queen, Storm. There they sought the guidance of the Ani-Men, animals that were believed to be mutated by the Terrigen Mists. When Mar-Vell came for the Cosmic Cube, it was later realized that it was that very device that changed the Ani-Men, and that even though he never touched the Cube, Black Panther was the reason behind it. In shame he gave the cube to Mar-Vell. Panther was then assisted by the X-Men in bringing the nation of Wakanda to the Savage Land to protect the Ani-Men from an army of Wendigos. --- more later --- ---- Earth-009997 Earth-009997